If Ivar Stenberg’s leaps had Michael Jordan-like air to them, it’s likely because the weight of the world came off his Swedish uniform the moment he deposited the puck into an empty Czech net.
Stenberg’s tally with just eight seconds remaining in the gold medal game of the 2026 World Junior Championship came only after a contest that favoured Sweden 3-0 turned into a 3-2 nailbiter thanks to a pair of late strikes with the goalie pulled by Czechia. But when Stenberg sped down the ice and slipped the puck home to cement a 4-2 win, the subsequent celebration was about more than securing a single victory; it was also about flushing years of frustration and heartbreak for Sweden at this event.
Despite being a top-notch hockey nation that pipes stars into the NHL, Sweden has fallen flat at the WJC time and time again. In the course of its history — this was the 50th world juniors — this tournament has been downright cruel to Sweden. Entering Monday night’s tilt at Grand Casina Arena in St. Paul, Minn., Sweden was 1-8 in WJC gold medal games, including a final-contest setback on home ice two years ago versus Team USA.
Somehow, despite sending quality teams year after year, Sweden was in search of just their second gold medal since 1981. Another loss on the big stage would have made you wonder what exactly the hockey gods have against the young Tre Kronor. Instead, Sweden leaves Minneapolis and St. Paul with its best world junior moment since Mika Zibanejad scored an overtime winner to secure gold against the Russians 14 years ago in 2012.
While Czechia — which has now earned a medal in four straight world juniors — made it close with a huge push in the end, Sweden was certainly full value for the win. It held Czechia to just 11 shots through 40 minutes while building a 2-0 lead thanks to a short-handed marker by Casper Juustovaara in the opening frame and a power-play marker from Victor Eklund in the second.
It seemed like Sweden might cruise to gold when D-man and Winnipeg Jets prospect Sascha Boumedienne crushed a puck home to put his team up by three less than four minutes into the third. But Adam Jiricek hammered home a six-on-five goal with 2:24 to play in the third, and things got really interesting when Matej Kubiesa did the same exactly two minutes later with 24 ticks remaining on the clock.
However, after Sweden made one final flip out of the zone, Stenberg was able to race down the ice and ensure the ultimate Swedish WJC nightmare never came to fruition.
The empty-netter was Stenberg’s second point of the night and he was certainly one of the Swedes who had a monster impact on the game. Sweden’s power play went one-for-one, and everything it did ran through Stenberg in the high slot. Before Eklund ultimately found the net, Stenberg teed up highly touted Chicago Blackhawks prospect Anton Frondell — named best forward of the WJC by the tournament directors — for a one-timer that easily could have resulted in a goal. When it didn’t, the puck eventually found its way back to Stenberg and he wound up drawing an assist on Eklund’s tally.
Stenberg, who seems like a surefire top-three pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, played on a line with fellow draft-eligible player Viggo Bjorck, and both players looked extremely dangerous every time they touched the ice.
Swedish captain Jack Berglund also led the way by leveraging his six-foot-two, 209-pound frame all over the sheet. The Philadelphia Flyers prospect did incredible work on the goal that opened the scoring when — with Czechia on the power play but a delayed penalty coming against the Czechs — he danced Jiricek and tried to deke out goalie Michal Orsulak. When his move was stymied, Berglund stuck with the puck, fought off two defenders behind the Czech net and fed Juustovaara for the game-opening tally.
Berglund’s contribution to the second Swedish goal wasn’t quite as dramatic, but he made a nice touch on a loose puck in the slot to get it over to Eklund, who made no mistake at the side of the net.
Of course, even if he had a relatively calm night until the Czechs swarmed with their net empty, we can’t overlook the work of Love Harenstam in the Swedish crease. The St. Louis Blues prospect went wire-to-wire for Sweden in the tournament and was named best goalie at the WJC by both the tournament directors and media covering the event.
While Harenstam certainly did his part, for most of the final contest the Blue and Yellow smothered their Czech opponents, getting sticks in lanes and bodies in front of pucks. Eklund — a New York Islanders first-rounder — wound up being named player of the game for Sweden, which was as much about his extra effort on defence as it was his second-period goal. This entire group of young Swedes played like a team that was sick of hearing about their country’s junior hockey shortcomings and wanted to do something about it.
Having done just that, they’ve ensured one of hockey’s top nations will enter next year’s holiday classic with a label it so rarely carries to the WJC: defending champs.